How to Enable or Disable Deleting Diagnostic Data in Windows 11

This guide explains how to control whether your computer allows you to delete the diagnostic data collected by Microsoft. Windows collects this information to fix bugs, keep your system secure, and improve performance.

Why? You may want to stop this feature if you prefer to restrict how your device manages or removes the history of the data sent to Microsoft servers.

What happens? When you change these settings, you either permit or block the option to clear the diagnostic logs stored on your device.

Note: You must be signed in as an administrator to perform these steps.

Option One

Enable or Disable Deleting Diagnostic Data in Local Group Policy Editor

Note: This option is only available for Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions.

1. Open the Local Group Policy Editor by searching for gpedit.msc in the Start menu.
2. Navigate to the following path in the left menu:
3. Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Data Collection and Preview Builds

3. In the right pane, double-click on Disable deleting diagnostic data.

To Enable Deleting Diagnostic Data (Default):

• Select Not Configured.
• Click OK.

To Disable Deleting Diagnostic Data:

• Select Enabled.
• Click OK.

7. Close the editor when finished.

Option Two

Enable or Disable Deleting Diagnostic Data using Registry

Note: This step requires administrator privileges. Open the Windows Terminal as an administrator.

To Enable deleting diagnostic data (Default), run this command:

reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection" /v DisableDeviceDelete /f

To Disable deleting diagnostic data, run this command:

reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DataCollection" /v DisableDeviceDelete /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Summary

You can manage your diagnostic data settings through either the Local Group Policy Editor or the Registry. By default, Windows allows you to delete this data. Using these steps, you can restrict that ability if you wish to lock these settings on your device.